Shenyang

Bass-Baritone

Biography

Bass-baritone Shenyang is recognized as the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World as well as 2010 winner of the Montblanc New Voices at Stars of the White Nights Festival and as 2008 winner of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. This season sees Shenyang return to the Metropolitan Opera for Julie Taymor’s beloved production of The Magic Flute, conducted by Anthony Walker, as well as appear as Leporello in Don Giovanni with the Shanghai Symphony. Concert appearances include Handel’s Messiah with the University Musical Society, a concert celebrating the Chinese New Year with Maestro Long Yu and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, among other engagements.

Highlights of the 2015 – 2016 season include the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro for his house debut with Seattle Opera. He also made important debuts with the Sydney Symphony in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis conducted by music director David Robertson, and with the New Japan Philharmonic for Mahler’s Eighth Symphony conducted by Daniel Harding. He returned to the Beijing Music Festival for performances of Schoenberg’s Guerre Lieder and sang a duo recital program with soprano Susannah Phillips and pianist Brian Zeger at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A frequent collaborator with the Metropolitan Opera, Shenyang has most recently returned to the house for Julie Taymor’s beloved production of The Magic Flute, conducted by Jane Glover, and for La cenerentola under the baton of the Met’s Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi. At the Met, Shenyang previously has been heard as Masetto in a new production of Don Giovanni, directed by Michael Grandage and conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, as Garibaldo in Rodelinda directed by Stephen Wadsworth and conducted by Harry Bicket, and as Colline in La bohème in the beloved Franco Zefferili production conducted by Marco Armiliato.

On the concert stage the artist recently joined Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, and Gianluigi Gelmetti and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and, in a return engagement, he joined Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony for Beethoven’s Mass in C as well as Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, to the International Bachakademie Stuutgart for Handel’s Messiah, to Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts and the Orquesta Nacional de España for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and to the Beijing Music Festival for a nationally televised gala concert celebrating the music of Chinese composer Huang Zi. He performed Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with Grant Park Music Festival and the Requiems of both Mozart and Verdi with the Oregon Bach Festival under the batons of Matthew Halls and Helmuth Rilling, respectively. Shenyang sang Verdi’s Requiem with the Huangzhou Philharmonic and, in his conducting debut, lead the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra in an orchestral program of Dvořák and Smetana.

Highlights of past seasons include house debuts both with Opernhaus Zürich and the Washington National Opera as Alidoro in La Cenerentola, a role debut as Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in a new production at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, a return to the Beijing Music Festival for Jing Xiang’s opera, Yuan Ye, conducted by Long Yu, and the world premiere of the orchestral song cycle, Song of Farewell, written for him by composer Xiaogang Ye receiving performances in Beijing and at the Berliner Philharmonie with the China National Symphony Orchestra. North American performances include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Matthew Halls and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as well as Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Michael Tilson Thomas leading the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

Shenyang embodies a 21st century bridge between the cultures of East and West. His celebration of the human voice was spotlighted as Artist in Residence of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in 2011-12 in numerous programs conducted by Long Yu with repertoire ranging from Bach and Mozart to Rachmaninov and Mahler. He joined Daniel Harding and the China Philharmonic for selections from Mahler’s Des knaben Wunderhorn at the opening weekend of the Beijing Music Festival and was presented in solo recital at the Festival in a program of Schubert, Loewe, and Mahler.

Shenyang has appeared with Helmuth Rilling and the International Bachakademie Stuttgart on a European tour of Bach’s Mass in b minor. In the summer of 2012, Shenyang made his Glyndebourne Festival debut in a revival of the Sir Peter Hall production of La cenerentola and bowed for the first time, also as Alidoro, at the Bayerische Staatsoper.

Shenyang sang Rossini’s Stabat Mater with Sir Antonio Pappano and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra and was a featured soloist at the opening concert of the China National Grand Theatre in Beijing. He performed Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten with John Nelson at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, solo Lieder recitals at BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Shanghai Grand Theatre, and in New York at Lincoln Center under the auspices of The Juilliard School, a Young Singers Concert with Ivor Bolton at the Salzburg Festival, and Brahms’ Liebeslieder Walzer with James Levine and Daniel Barenboim at Carnegie Hall. He made his New York Philharmonic debut with Messiah performances under the baton of Helmuth Rilling, sang the title role of Mendelssohn’s Elijah in his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (in Boston and at Carnegie Hall), and performed an aria concert conducted by Valery Gergiev at the White Nights Festival. He was a guest soloist on an international tour with Edo de Waart and the Hong Kong Philharmonic with performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and of excerpts from Mahler’s Des knaben Wunderhorn and he joined Helmuth Rilling and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah. The artist appeared with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Ragnar Bohlin for Bach’s Mass in b minor, the Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra and James Conlon for Mendelssohn’s Elias, and at Carnegie Hall in a concert performance of Mozart’s Zaïde with Ensemble ACJW conducted by David Robertson.

Born in Tianjin, China, Shenyang studied with Professor Ping Gu at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and of The Julliard School Opera Center. He has received master classes with James Levine, José Van Dam, John Fisher, Carlo Bergonzi, Renata Scotto, Sir Thomas Allen, Håkan Hagegård, Christa Ludwig, Barbara Bonney, Malcolm Martineau, Stephen Wadsworth, and Renée Fleming.

Reviews

“As the faithless Garibaldo, bass-baritone Shenyang…is an important voice in the making, and he made a vocal flourish in Di Cupido a thing both mellifluous and simmering with treachery.”

Marion Lignana Rosenberg

Classical Review

“Then there was Elijah’s despondent aria, “It is enough,” so beautifully felt by the 26-year-old Shenyang. Shenyang is clearly a star to watch, blessed with stunning vocal presence and a gift for communication. His Elijah was both magnanimous and tortured, and his voice remained fresh all evening.”

Janelle Gelfand

Cincinnati.com

More Reviews

“As the faithless Garibaldo, bass-baritone Shenyang…is an important voice in the making, and he made a vocal flourish in Di Cupido a thing both mellifluous and simmering with treachery.”

Marion Lignana Rosenberg, Classical ReviewNov 15th 2011

“Then there was Elijah’s despondent aria, “It is enough,” so beautifully felt by the 26-year-old Shenyang. Shenyang is clearly a star to watch, blessed with stunning vocal presence and a gift for communication. His Elijah was both magnanimous and tortured, and his voice remained fresh all evening.”

Janelle Gelfand, Cincinnati.comMay 30th 2011

“Nor could I ever forget the singer Shenyang in his one aria. The second act may be a Singspiel though it often sounds like an opera seria. With a single exception. This is an aria so unreservedly hilarious that Rossini’s Figaro and Mozart’s Papageno would have envied it. Shenyang, as the slave Osmin, sings a strophic ditty about ein ganzer Narr–the perfect fool. I.e. the man who “whines, moans, screams, curses”. He is also a laughable fool, and bass-baritone Shenyang used all his full-bodied voice and delicious sense of humor to guffaw, giggle, bray and explosively stutter “h-h-h-h-haha” with prestissimo velocity. The Tianjin-born singer obviously has the chops for the heaviest repertory, but this song was an uncommon delight in an uncommonly delightful opera.”

Henry Rolnick, ConcertoNet.comApr 1st 2011

“The ultimate standout among the vocal soloists was the Chinese bass-baritone Shenyang with a lyrical account of the expansive “Et in Spiritum Sanctum,” marked by a blend of rhetorical directness and tenderness.”